Experience with Virtual Bookkeepers and Accounting Services

November 03, 2023

by a searcher from Duke University in Tulsa, OK, USA

I am optimistic I will have my LOI accepted over the next few days. The company is owned by a husband and wife and the wife handles most of the accounting functions such as payroll, receivables, and payables. There is additional office staff who can help with these tasks when they travel but she takes the lead.
The Sellers believe I should hire someone to do these tasks but I want to explore alternatives. In order to hire a full time bookkeeper it will cost around 60-70K after benefits and payroll taxes and I don't think it requires 40 hours of work each week.
If I close the transaction my plan would be to first learn these tasks so I have a basic understanding and quickly transition the accounting system to cloud access. Then I would decide if I want to hire someone to do this or outsource the work at a potentially lower cost.

Has anyone had experience outsourcing payroll, AR, and AP tasks? I would be thrilled to speak with anyone who has worked with a virtual bookkeeper in the Philippines or somewhere else to reduce cost and understand their experience.

Reply by a searcher
from Millersville University of Pennsylvania in Mantua Township, NJ, USA

I own a remote small business accounting firm and am a Profit First Professional. My team can easily handle the accounting, AR and AP. While my team is all US based, I also own a property management company and leverage a remote team in the Philippines (including accounting). If you shoot me a DM I would be more than happy to have a chat about your situation.

Reply by a searcher
from Harvard University in West Sacramento, CA, USA

Hey - I have experience with this and generally I would not recommend. It depends on how much you care about the sloppiness of your financials. We did this and the company we used did a terrible job and it had financial implications - overpayment on taxes, higher bills from our tax firm due to the sloppiness of what they did. If you are small enough it's better to find someone part-time and know the numbers yourself. Granted I tend to get into the weeds on financials and like doing that, but be careful with outsourcing.

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